ONPHA's Financial Resources Suite

Sound financial oversight, processes and procedures are essential to the sustainability and success of any non-profit housing organization, particularly in the face of heightened expectations and requirements from funders and governments. Regardless of role or title, all staff have a part to play in ensuring and supporting financial responsibility and success.

On this page, you'll find a number of resources designed to help non-profit housing providers build financial literacy and understanding across their organizations.

Financial Policies and Procedures Handbook

ONPHA's 2018 Financial Policies and Procedures Handbook is is designed to help housing providers and their staff understand the fundamentals of financial oversight, policies and processes. Grounded in the non-profit housing context, the handbook provides guidance, practical advice, examples and customizable resources to help managers, board members, staff and administrators:

plan and implement effective budgets
understand key financial indicators and how to interpret them
identify fundamental internal controls and how to implement them across the organization
plan for and support your organization’s annual financial audit
understand financial roles and responsibilities and allocate them effectively within your organization’s structure
enable new staff and board members to understand and support good financial processes
identify gaps and develop the right policies, procedures and guidelines to support strong financial oversight
plan for end-of-operating agreements and manage financial risk
ensure your policies and procedures help meet your accountability, legislative and Canada Revenue Agency requirements

The Handbook is accompanied by more than 20 customizable templates to support your work, including:

sample plans, policies and bylaws to support risk management, investment, fraud prevention, internal controls and more
sample procedures to support rent collection, spending, internet banking and more
cheque requisition and expense form
petty cash log and reconciliation form
audit preparation and bookkeeping checklists

Purchase the Handbook in the ONPHA store, with preferred rates for ONPHA Housing members and Service manager partners.

InfoONs

ONPHA's InfoON series tackles the problems and challenges housing providers face the most, outlining best practices, practical approaches and solutions. These straight-forward resources are a great place to start to learn about key areas of housing management, and they are available exclusively to housing members at no cost.

ONPHA Housing member access only:

Best Practices in Bookkeeping: Get an understanding of key bookkeeping functions, where common mistakes are made and how to make your financial statements work better for you.

Tendering for an Audit: Learn about the process of tendering for an audit, including when to tender, corporate requirements, and principles of the tendering process.

Investment Policies for Non-profit Housing Providers: Use this instructional overview and sample to create an investment policy that works within your operating agreement.

Internet Banking and Pre-Authorized Payments: Understand the types of internet banking available and the internal controls needed to safeguard your resources and avoid exposure to risk.